Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
April 5, 2016
World media is now alight with
reports surrounding the largest data leak in the history of journalism
known as the Panama Papers. The 2.6 terabytes worth of information
has apparently revealed dirty deals, money laundering operations, and tax avoidance schemes by some of the world’s most powerful people including celebrities, athletes, world leaders, politicians, and their relatives. In addition, over 200,000 companies, trusts, and foundations are mentioned and exposed in the leak coming from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian “law firm” that contains files with information such as “holdings of drug dealers, Mafia members, corrupt politicians and tax evaders – and wrongdoing galore.”
Mossack Fonseca is considered one of the world’s biggest creators of “shell companies,” corporate formations that can be used to hide the true owners of various assets. The data that was released by Mossack Fonseca includes contracts, emails, bank records, property deeds, passport copies and a host of other collections of sensitive information going as far back as 1977 to as recent as December, 2015.
As media outlet Zero Hedge describes the leak, “It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.”
As Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the outlet that received the leaks,
summarized the new revelations:
Over a year ago, an anonymous source contacted the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sells anonymous offshore companies around the world. These shell firms enable their owners to cover up their business dealings, no matter how shady. In the months that followed, the number of documents continued to grow far beyond the original leak. Ultimately, SZ acquired about 2.6 terabytes of data, making the leak the biggest that journalists had ever worked with. The source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures. The data provides rare insights into a world that can only exist in the shadows. It proves how a global industry led by major banks, legal firms, and asset management companies secretly manages the estates of the world’s rich and famous: from politicians, Fifa officials, fraudsters and drug smugglers, to celebrities and professional athletes.
Brandon Turbeville